Abstract
This issue of the South African Journal of Child Health (SAJCH) is characterised by variety. Variety is also typical of childhood ailments and captures our endeavour to serve the whole child health care community. The birth of a new baby is supposed to be an amazing and happy time, filled with wonderful warm emotions. If the new arrival has a deformity, the parents suddenly have to cope with major emotional turmoil. Coping is made more difficult in children with cleft lip / palate because of the difficulty in feeding with all its consequences. As health care providers attempting to help parents through this difficult time, we need mechanisms to evaluate what we do and how well we do it - in addition to assessing the effectiveness of the tools we use. The finding by Bellardie and Harris that the 'Cleft Lip and Palate Parent Information Leaflet' is such a tool may encourage its use in other centres. Similarly, the study by Ogunlesi and co-authors describes in their setting the profile of patients with cerebral palsy, another 'all too common' yet 'too little studied' condition. It is hoped that this study will encourage well-designed prospective studies that will not only identify disease determinants but make recommendations for prevention.
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